An Alexandria man has been charged with wire fraud after federal authorities say he was caught swindling $1 million through a mortgage scheme as the housing market busted.
Virginia businessman Jean Youseff Agbey created a fake construction company, Advanced Renovation and Construction, to obtain loans on eight Florida condominiums, according to court documents.
Those eight loans, which he received from two banks, were structured so he could line his pockets with $125,000 from each, court records said. Agbey then used the $1 million to buy a home in Alexandria.
Agbey has a tangled history of international legal battles, according to court records.
He filed suit in Fairfax County in the mid-1990s against the then prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, over a multimillion-dollar cell phone contract.
The lawsuit, which Agbey lost, alleged Hariri, a Muslim, had tried to push Agbey out of the deal because Abgey was a Christian. The allegation caused a stir in Lebanon, which was recovering from its decadelong civil war between Muslims and Christians.
But by 2006, Agbey was far removed from making seven-figure international business deals. According to court documents, the only job for which he reported taxes in 2006 and 2007 was with Quick Pita in the District of Columbia.
It was during that time, between April and June 2007, that Agbey began buying the eight condominiums in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Each cost $385,000 and he received loans covering the cost, court records said.
Those loans were approved after the banks received what authorities maintain was a forged letter from a construction company saying that the loans were to be used to buy homes. That company did not exist, federal authorities said.
Meanwhile, Agbey had gathered the $1 million, and in October 2007 he bought a home at 6409 Gayfields Road in Alexandria for $950,000 in cash, court records said.
Calls to Agbey’s attorney, James Thomas Bacon, were not returned. Agbey was indicted Oct. 9.
